Former YMCA head points to executive experience in the private sector

In a matter of weeks, you can expect to start hearing a lot more from the players running to be the mayor of Davenport.

Incumbent Mayor Bill Gluba figures to face the toughest re-election challenge of his political career.

That's if he decides to run again.

A lot of people expect him to, but he's made no formal announcement yet.

Bill Gluba won his first term in 2007 with more than 62 percent of the vote over Phil Yerington.

Two years later, he ran unopposed with only 5,000 votes cast in Davenport's mayor's race.

Gluba claimed his third term in 2011 again running unopposed when not even 1,800 people bothered to check a box for mayor.

He won his fourth term a couple of years ago with the most significant challenge coming from Phil Yerington in a write in campaign, the same man he defeated in his first election.

It became clear this year's race will be different in April.

That's when Frank Klipsch announced he's running for the job.

While not currently holding public office, Klipsch is well known in the community.

He spent his professional career working for the YMCA across the country.

Most notably around here as the CEO of the Scott County Family Y in Davenport from 1987 to 2012, followed by a couple of more years as the president of the YMCA Youth and Family Foundation in Davenport.

We don't know the official mayoral field yet.

The filing period doesn't start until August tenth.

We're waiting for a formal announcement from Mayor Bill Gluba.

Retired firefighter Dave Hereid has told Local Four News he intends to run.

Only Frank Klipsch has made an announcement with any kind of fanfare.

Klipsch tells 4 the Record he's not running because Gluba is doing a bad job.

He wants a chance to bring his own ideas to the mayor's office.

Klipsch admits it would be weird running against a man who praised him for his community service over the years.

Klipsch worked for the YMCA in some capacity from 1972 to 2014.

He was the director of health and physical education in Tucson, Arizona from 1972 to 1978.

From there, he moved to Naperville, Illinois to be the associate executive from 1979 to 1983.

Klipsch was the executive director in Roswell, New Mexico from 1984 to 1987.

Then came the move to Scott County.

Klipsch spent 25 years as the CEO for the Scott County YMCA from 1987 to 2012.

He wrapped up his career with the organization as the president of the YMCA Youth and Family Foundation from 2013 to 2014 in Davenport.

While he admits he doesn't have political experience, he believes his career as an executive with the YMCA will translate well into city management.

Klipsch says he is focused on fixing the streets.

It's a priority of his, but he didn't offer any specific plans to the work that's already being done in Davenport other than to say the public needs to be kept informed about the when and where work will be done and explain why some places get more attention than others.

Klipsch also addressed a controversial topic that's been getting a lot of attention.

He says he supports the use of body cameras by police and called the recent events that have brought the issue to the forefront unfortunate.

Copyright 2015 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.